We've known that the Galaxy Note 10.1 was destined for Verizon Wireless as early as CES two months ago, but now Big Red has finally supplied us with details on when and how much. The carrier will begin offering the Note 10.1 this Thursday, and all it will cost you is a mere $600 for the privilege of calling it your very own. To recap, Verizon's version will offer Android 4.1 with cascading Multi-Window support, a 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos processor, 2GB RAM, 7,000mAh battery and -- naturally -- the carrier's huge logos taking up the most space on the back.

China and Google just can't seem to get along. The country's ministry is the latest to take issue with el Goog, stating that it has too much control within the smartphone industry because of its Android OS and is discriminating against local rivals. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced this in its recent white paper, adding that the country had the ability to craft its own mobile OS if it wanted to. According to the document: "While the Android system is open source, the core technology and technology roadmap is strictly controlled by Google." It goes on to describe how the Mountain View crew had apparently delayed sharing source code with Chinese companies developing their own operating systems. The paper also took the opportunity to praise homegrown stars like Baidu, Alibaba and Huawei for their own systems. In short, it looks like an amicable relationship is still a while off.

Who wants to build a beta city? The final version of EA's long-awaited followup to its city-building classic goes live today in North America for all of you aspiring mayors out there -- well, those of you with a PC at least (the Mac version is still forthcoming). You can download or pick up a physical copy through EA's Origin site right now, to finally get your Robert Moses on (though maybe watch where you stick those highways).

NVIDIA Sets New Standard for Workstation Performance and Reliability

New Line-up of Kepler-Based NVIDIA Quadro Professional Graphics
Delivers Unprecedented Capabilities to Millions of Content-Creation, Design, Engineering Professionals

SANTA CLARA, Calif.-March 5, 2013-NVIDIA today unveiled a range of NVIDIA® Quadro® professional graphics products that offer unprecedented workstation performance and capabilities for professionals in manufacturing, engineering, medical, architectural, and media and entertainment companies.

GOWEX deploys in New York one of the biggest free WiFi Networks in the world

New Yorkers and visitors will enjoy almost two thousands WiFi hotspots around the biggest neighborhoods of the city The new "FREEWiFiGOWEX" network will allow data offloading from the 3G networks to the GOWEX access points Using New York as launch pad, GOWEX plans to know to expand its offer to the other main cities of the country

MADRID--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

GOWEX (MAD:GOW) (Paris:ALGOW) (GOW-MAB, ALGOW-NYSE Alternext, LGWXY-OTC), leading company creating Wireless smart cities (Wireless Smart Cities®) and intelligent WiFi into the transport, will offer its Free WiFi solution to New York by the deployment of 1953 WiFi smart zones in the biggest neighborhoods of the city. Thanks to GOWEX, the almost 20 million of New-Yorkers and also the 52 millions of tourists who visit the city, will have free Internet access through-out the hundreds of hotspots spread out between Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

GAME GOLF brings the golfing experience into the 21st century

Launches Indiegogo campaign for wearable golf technology and integrated software platform - seamlessly records shot location, distance, club usage and syncs to cloud

SAN FRANCISCO (Marketwire) – March 5, 2013 – GAME GOLF, a wearable technology and integrated software platform for golf, was launched today by Active Mind Technology through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise funds in order to bring the product to market by Summer 2013. Backed by professional golfers Graeme McDowell and Lee Westwood, it seamlessly records your golf game to make the game you love more engaging, visual, interactive, shareable and social, both on and off the course. GAME GOLF is available for pre-order now at www.gameyourgame.com.

As ubiquitous as Samsung's Galaxy S II is, we imagined that its influence would wane in the face of the S III and whatever we see in a week's time. The Korean behemoth has other ideas, once again refreshing the former flagship to ensure it'll remain on store shelves as an increasingly lower-end option. Inside you've got a 1.2GHz dual-core Broadcom CPU, 1GB RAM and Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). There's also a 4.3-inch WVGA (800 x 480) display, 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel lens up top, as well as GSM and HSPA+ support. How does it compare to the original? Well, it felt a lot more responsive and snappy than when we handled the Galaxy S II last, but part of that is likely due to the new Android Jelly Bean OS' buttery-smooth scrolling. Otherwise, it handled and behaved much like Samsung's aging 'droid hit. The case has now been sanded-down to reflect the company's more natural, Galaxy S III-based design cues, so if you fancy a short game of spot the difference, you can check out the gallery. Samsung Galaxy S II Plus hands-on See all photos

A pure LTE world is still a long, long way off. But some countries and carriers could get there quicker than others, and indeed Verizon has revealed that it's considering launching LTE-only handsets, with no CDMA chip, within the next couple of years. Speaking to analysts at a recent Deutsche Bank event, the carrier's CFO, Fran Shammo, said his company's goal is to establish voice over LTE by the end of this year and then to "start to think" about pure LTE handsets in "late 2014". Shammo mentioned this possibility in the context of bringing out cheaper phones, and a general incentive for any carrier to leave 3G behind would be to avoid paying associated licensing fees to the likes of Qualcomm or Broadcom. If those savings eventually trickled down to us customers, and if we could breathe the clean air of the countryside without LTE dropping, then it'd certainly be an enticing prospect.

The BBC's Cyrus Saihan has just hit us with the news that iPlayer will soon be available on Windows Phones in the UK, following a deal with Microsoft. Technically speaking, it'll be a browser-based shortcut, but it sounds like it should function much like a regular app: it'll be available from the Windows Phone Store and run on WP 7.5 and 8 handsets with its own live tile. According to the BBC's press office, which seems to be a bit more specific with its time frames, the service should become available within the "next few months". Sure, there have been false starts in the past, and various technical hiccups that have made it difficult for the Beeb to support Microsoft's mobile OS, but this time -- finally -- it's for real.

To be honest, CeBIT is a fairly sleepy tech show, especially compared to Mobile World Congress, which just wrapped last week. For Fujitsu's part, the outfit already showed off its waterproof slate and GPS cane (aka the best thing we've seen so far this year). But the company did keep at least one trick up its sleeve: a tablet with a built-in palm reader. If you recall, we knew a year ago that Fujitsu was working on a tablet that could scan the palm as a form of authentication, but we've never actually seen a finished product, or even a functioning prototype. Until today, of course. Meet us after the break for a closer look. Fujitsu PalmSecure prototype tablet hands-on See all photos